Met a guy at the Lafayette Building who changed how I see empty storefronts

I was walking through the Lafayette Building back in March checking out some available spaces, and I ran into this older fella who owned a hardware shop there for like 30 years before it closed. He pointed at the boarded up store next to his old spot and said "that one's been empty since 2008 because the landlord wants $4,000 a month for 800 square feet." I asked him why anyone would pay that in a building with no foot traffic, and he shrugged and said "because they don't actually want a tenant, they want a tax write off." That stuck with me more than any article I've read about why downtown never fills up. Made me realize half these empty spaces ain't about bad location or Detroit's rep, they're about owners sitting on properties hoping for a check that's never coming. Has anyone else talked to old timers who actually know what the landlords are thinking behind the scenes?

3 comments

3 Comments

webb.ben28d ago

@shanem37 hit it right on the head. I've done electrical work in a few buildings like that where the owner just parks a truck or old equipment in there and claims it's "actively used" to dodge the blight fines. Best bet is to check property tax records online, you'll see which ones are being claimed as non-income properties and that tells you everything.

patriciah5127d ago

Look up who owns the building, then cross reference their other properties. Its a shell game a lot of these guys play. Theyll have one LLC for a paid off building they claim is a loss, then another LLC for a different property theyre charging triple market rate on. @shanem37 is exactly right about the tax records. Theyre a goldmine if you know how to read them. The landlords banking on people not doing the homework.

shanem3728d ago

Wait, is that seriously how it works with some of these landlords? I had almost the exact same thing happen to me last summer when I was looking at a spot on Michigan Ave. This old guy who used to run a diner there told me the building next door had been empty for like 12 years cause the owner wouldn't go below $5k a month for a space that was basically falling apart. He said the guy just uses it for storage now and writes off the property taxes. Another fella I met at a bar in Hamtramck told me his old landlord bragged about how keeping his storefront empty saved him money on insurance and maintenance. It makes me wonder how many of these "for lease" signs are just total fiction.